ANCIENT AND MODERN GREECE. Map No. I.

A general description of both Ancient and Modern Greece may be found on pp. 21 Grecian Mythology, 22 to 27-Ancient History of Greece, 27 to 123-Modern History '@ 523. For descriptive accounts of the Grecian States, and important towns, cities, rivers, battle grounds, &c., see the "Index to the Descriptive Notes" at the end of the volume.

The following is a brief synopsis of the leading events in Grecian History, beginning w th the Persian wars, which ended B. C. 469. The Peloponnesian wars lasted nearly thirt, years P. 3. 431-404. Subjugation of Greece by Philip of Macedon, B. C. 338, after which come the conqueris of Alexander, the Achæan League, and then the Roman conquest, B. C. 146, from which time, during thirteen hundred and fifty years, Greece continued to be either really or nominally a portion of the Roman empire. The country was invaded by Alaric the Goth, A. D. 400, and afterwards by Genseric and Zaber Khan, in the sixth and seventh, and by the Normans in the eleventh century. After the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, Greece was divided into feudal principalities, and governed by a variety of Norman, Ve netian, and Frankish nobles. It was invaded by the Turks in 1438, and conquered by them in 1481. It was the theatre of wars between the Turks and Venetians during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but by the treaty of Passarovitch, in 1718, it was given up to the Turks, who retained possession of the country till the breaking out of the Greek Revolution in 1821. The present kingdom of Greece embraces all the Grecian peninsula south of the ancient Epirus and Thes' saly, as seen on the accompanying map, together with Euboea, the Cyc' lades and the northern Spor' ades. Thes' saly, now a Turkish province, retains its ancient name and limits: Epirus is einbraced in the Turkish province of Albania, for which, see Map No. VII. The Modern Greeks are described as being, generally, "rather above the middle height, and well-shaped; they have the face oval, features regular and expressive, eyes large, dark, and animated, eyebrows arched, hair long and dark, and complexions olive colored." They retain many of the customs and ceremonies of the ancients; the common people are extremely credulous and superstitious, and pay much attention to auguries, omens, and dreams. They belong mostly to the Greek Church; they deny the supremacy of the pope, abhor the worship of images, and reject the doctrine of purgatory, but believe in transubstantiation. The priests are generally poor and illiterate, although improving in their attainments; and their habits are generally simple and exemplary.

The inhabitants of Northern Greece, or Hellas, are said to have retained "a chivalrous and warlike spirit, with a simplicity of manners and mode of life which strongly remind us of the pictures of the heroic age." The inhabitants of the Peloponnesus are more ignorant and less honest than those of Hellas. Previous to the Greek Revolution, remains of the Hellenic race were found, in their greatest purity, in the mountainous parts of the country-in the vicinity of Mount Parnassus in Northern Greece, and the inhospitable tracts of Taygetos in Southern Greece, whither they had been driven from the plains by their ruthless oppressors. The language of the modern Greeks bears, in many of its words, and in its general forms and grammatical structure, a strong resemblance to the ancient Greek-similar to the relation sustained by the Italian to the Latin; but as the pronunciation of the ancient Greek is lost, how far the modern tongue corresponds to it in that particular cannot be ascertained.

Travellers still speak in the highest terms of the fine views everywhere found in Grecian scenery;-and besides their natural beauties, they are doubly dear to us by the thousand hallowed associations connected with them by scenes of historic interest, and by the numerous ruins of ancient art and splendor which cover the country-recalling & glorious Past, upon which we love to dwell as upon the memory of departed friends, or the scenes of happy childhood-" sweet, but mournful, to the soul."

"Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild;
Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields,
Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,
And still his honied wealth Hymettus yields.
There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,
The freeborn wanderer of thy mountain air;
Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,
Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare;
Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.

"Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted, holy ground;
No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould,
But one vast realm of wonder spreads around,
And all the muses' tales seem truly told,
Till the sense aches with gazing to behold
The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon;
Each hill and daie, each deepening glen and wold,
Defies the power which crush'd thy temples gone:
Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon."
Childe Harolde, canto 1.

ANCIENT ATHENS. Map No. II.

Among the monuments of antiquity which still exist at A hens, the most striking are those which surmount the Acropolis, or Cecropian citadel, which is a rocky height rising abruptly out of the Attic plain, and accessible only on the western side, where stood the Propyle'a, a magnifcent structure of the Doric order, which served as the gate as well as the defence of the Acropolis. But the chief glory of Athens was the Par' thenon, or temple of Minerva, which stood on the highest point, and near the centre, of the Acrop' olis. It was constructed entirely of the most beautiful white marble from Mount Pentel' licus, and its dimensions were two hundred and twenty-eight feet by one hundred and two-having eight Doric columns in each of the two fronts, and seventeen in each of the sides, and also an interior range of six columns in each end. The ceiling of the western part of the main building was supported by four interior columns, and of the eastern end by sixteen. The entire height of the building above its platform was sixty-five feet. The whole was enriched, within and without, with matchless works of art by the first sculptors of Greece. This magnificent structure remained entire until the year 1687, when, during a siege of Athens by the Venetians, a bomb fell on the devoted Par' thenon, and setting fire to the powder which the Turks had stored there, entirely destroyed the roof, and reduced the whole building almost to ruins. The eight columns of the eastern front, however, and several of the lateral colonnades, are still standing, and the whole, dilapidated as it is, still retains an air of inexpressible grandeur and sublimity.

North of the Par' thenon stood the Erechtheivm, an irregular but beautiful structure of the Ionic order, dedicated to the worship of Neptune and Minerva. Considerable remains of it ere still existing. In addition to the three great edifices of the Acrop' olis, which were adorned with the most finished paintings and sculptures, the entire platform of the hill appears to have been covered with a vast composition of architecture and sculpture, cons sting of temples, monuments, and statues of Grecian gods and heroes. Among these may be mentioned statues of Jupiter, Apollo, Neptune, Mercury, Venus, and Minerva; and a vast number of statues of eminent Grecians-the whole Acrop' olis having been at once the fortress, the sacred enclosure, and the treasury of the Athenian nation, and forming the noblest museum of sculpture, the richest gallery of painting, and the best school of architecture in the world.

Beneath the southern wall of the Acrop' olis, near its eastern extremity, was the Theatre of Bacchus, which was capable of containing thirty thousand persons, and whose seats, rising one above another, were cut out of the sloping rock. Adjoining this on the east was the Odéum built by Pericles, and beneath the western extremity of the Acrop' olis was the Odéum or Musical Theatre, constructed in the form of a tent. On the north-east side of the Acrop' olis stood the Prytaneum, where were many statues, and where citizens who had rendered service to the State were maintained at the public expense. A short distance to the north-west of the Acrop' olis was the small eminence called Areop' agus, or hill of Mars, at the eastern extremity of which was situated the celebrated court of the Areop' agus. About a quarter of a mil south-west stood the Payz, the place where the public assemblies of Athens were held in its palmy days, a spot that will ever be associated with the renown of Demosthenes, and other famed Athenian orators. The steps by which the speaker mounted the rostrum, and a tier of three seats for the audience, hewn in the solid rock, are still visible. A short distance south of the Pnyx was the eminence called the Muséum, that part of Athens where the poet Musæus is said to have been buried.

In the Ceramicus, north and west of the Acrop' olis, one of the most considerable pat is of the ancient city, were many public buildings, some dedicated to the worship of the gods, others used for stores, and for the various markets, and some for schools, while the old Forum, often used for large assemblies of the people, occupied the interior. North of the Areop' agus is the Temple of Theseus, built of marble by Cimon. The roof, friezes, and cornices, of this temple. have been but little impaired by time, and the whole is one of the most noble remains of the ancient magnificence of Athens, and the most perfect, if not the most beautiful, existing specimen of Grecian architecture.

South-east of the Acrop' olis, and near the Ilissus, is now to be seen a cluster of sixteen mag. nificent Corinthian columns of Pentelic marble, the only remaining ones of a hundred and twenty, which mark the site of the Temple of Jupiter Olympius. On the left bank of the Missus was the Stádium, used for gymnastic contests, and capable of accommodating twenty five